The St Donat’s Castle estate, in the Vale of Glamorgan, includes two deer parks with medieval origins (301676), and a rare survival of Tudor terraced gardens attached to the castle (300312 & 700318). Immediately beyond, and below, the terraces, to their south and west, lie the remainder of the castle garden areas.

To their south is a triangular slope, bounded on the east by a high wall with a doorway into a small kitchen garden area, at top, and a small stone pavilion built into the wall at bottom. The north side is bounded by the great battered retaining wall at the foot of the terraces, large fig trees planted against it, and with overhanging juniper bushes, the wall rising to the south-west corner as the ground falls away steeply. The slope is informally planted with ornamental trees and shrubs, and below a triangular lawn with trees on the west side and a sundial in the middle, formerly called the Harp Garden. The slope below the west side of the terraces is densely planted with trees and shrubs, mostly conifers.

On the west side of the terraces a tree-lined gravel path, with flights of steps, descends the slope north-westwards, at the north end leading to grassy terraces at the foot of the slope and to a small enclosed pet cemetery. Below, on the valley floor, is a broad rectangular grassy area with some limited planting, bounded on the west by a canalised stream, and beyond it the wooded side of the valley. This area extends on the south as far as the Cavalry Barracks (37670).

Source:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 278-86 (ref: PGW(Gm)30(GLA)).

RCAHMW, 27 June 2022